iSBS 



GLEANINGS IN DEE CUJ/IUKE. 



271 



than paid as reg-ards tny own future liee-keeping:, to 

 say nothing- of what I may do for others; for I feel 

 confident that I can now lay down specific rules by 

 which all can winter their bees with perfect mfctij 

 every time. The near future will decide whether or 

 not I am correct. If any such rules have ever be- 

 fore been g-iven us, I know not when or by whom. 

 I am aware that many bee-keepers have supposed 

 that the wintering- problem was a simple one, and 

 one which tbey understood. They thought so be- 

 cause they had never failed of successful wintei-ing-. 

 Then they would tell us just how they did it. and 

 the different means and ways reported were almost 

 as numerous as the reporters. And then some one 

 would arise and report failure by the same process- 

 es, which proved conclusively that the ways and 

 means provided by the successful reporters were 

 only such as would warrant success with their in- 

 dividual conditions and environments. 



I now propose to lay down such rules as T fully 

 believe a?f can succeed with; and without courting- 

 any bcllig-erent discussions, I wish to leave my 

 record as a discoverer in this problem, with the 

 actual practical results of the future. 



I must first grive g-reat credit to Prof. A. .7. Cook, 

 with whom I have been corresponding-, and sending: 

 specimens for the past month, and who has worked 

 out the chemical and microscopic part of the prob- 

 lem in a largre deg-ree. 



First, having- been able to remove the cause of 

 bee-diarrhoea, and, of course, its consequent effects, 

 I have found that bees quite readily succumb to 

 freezing, which I believe is greatly aided by 

 their inability to e.xpel aqueous vapor in a Ipw 

 temperature. By unwarranted and severe expos- 

 ure to cold, I have frozen to death over 7.") colonies, 

 with no diarrhoea whate\er. Had I not first re 

 moved the cause of diarrhcj-a, these colonies would 

 have discharged that fecal mass before they suc- 

 cumbed to cold (as we commonly use the term). 



Second, this fecal discharge known as bee-diar- 

 i-lioea is every time composed of nitrogen, as I have 

 been claiming for the last two years; and while, 

 undoubtedly, in 9!) cases out of every 100, this nitro- 

 gen is taken from bee-bread or floating pollen in 

 the honey, Prof. Cook thinks that poKsihJy it maj' be 

 taken by consumption of bacteria by the bees, 

 which he has found in rare cases swarming in their 

 intestines. We would find l)acteria with fermenta- 

 tion. One fall my bees carried in nearly a (juart of 

 cider per hive. Though the following winter was 

 not severe, yet those that were confined for three 

 or four weeks shon-ed no symptoms of fecal accu- 

 mulations at the end of that time. I have seen colo- 

 nies have diarrhoea badly, with no longer confine- 

 ment with stores of i-ipe honej- and perfect bee- 

 bread. I have also seen the same fecal accumula- 

 tions take place with only two or three days' con- 

 finement, but at that season of the year when bees 

 were exerting themselves, and (consequently con- 

 suming pollen daily. 



I have just read Mr. Doolittle"s article on page 

 231, and in the .4m. Bee Ji»ir)iiiJ ^ read his account 

 of the time and way in which he supplied the colo- 

 ny in question with sugar syrup and no pollen. 

 Scientists know there is no niti-ogen in pure sugar 

 syrup. They also know that tissue can not be 

 created, either in the growth of new individuals, or 

 in making up waste, caused by exertion in older 

 ones, without the element nitrogen. 



The 200 young light-colored bees, together with 



the " patch of brood as big as a silver dollar," show 

 conclusively that Mr. D.'s colony possessed nitro- 

 gen, and it seems clear to me that they possessed 

 pollen ; for Prof. Cook writes me that, in examining 

 bees and combs from this same colony, he found 

 traces of pollen in the comb, some cases of undi- 

 gested pollen in the bees' excreta, also bacteria; 

 and later he writes me that Dr. Kedzie, our State 

 chemist, finds this excreta from Mr. Doolittle's bees 

 "containing nitrogen in abundance." Prof. Cook 

 also says that Mr. Doolittle's case appears to him 

 to show very mild symptoms of the disease. I had 

 one colony die with the disease in most radical form 

 over a month ago, from which 1 sent Prof. Cook 

 diarrhoetie excreta from a top-bar, and pollen from 

 the comb just under the top-bar. He analyzed both 

 carefully with a powerful microscope. He say8 the 

 excreta was not only almost entirely pollen, but 

 the .same kind of pollen as that sent him in the 

 comb beneath the top-bar. He concludes by say- 

 ing, "The pollen you sent had been liberally appro- 

 priated by the bees, whose excreta you sent." The 

 Professor also says, that, after many examinations, 

 he is positive that bees never discharge dry excreta. 

 ! He further writes me that he procured some bees 

 of a neighbor. These bees were lately dead of 

 diarrhoea, and he found their bodies nearly bursting 

 with the dark turgid excreta which, when microsco- 

 pically examined, proved to be pollen grains held in 

 a watery mixture. 



I assert the following, without fear that future 

 discoveries will prove me incorrect: 



1. Diarrhcetic accumulations aie composed of 

 nitrogen. 



2. This nitrogen is practically, and in neaily 

 every instance, taken by way of consumption of 

 bee-bread, or floating pollen, in the honey. 



3. Bees can use bee-bread for making chyme, or 

 jcUy, for larval food, without getting it into their 

 intestines, thus aggregating fecal matter. Hut 

 said chyme, being fed to the larvtv, and not con- 

 sumed by the old bees, they can and do breed in 

 confinement, without accumulating fecal matter, 

 thus engendering disease. 



4. Hees may quite easily perish from cold, witlu)ut 

 any disease whatever. 



5. Sugar syrup contains no nitrogen, but more 

 heat-producing elements than honey, hence it is 

 cheaper and safer as a winter food. 



fi. A low temperature will cause bees to endeavor 

 to add to their methods of producing heat, by way of 

 food, that of exercise, and this exercising will cause 

 a waste of tissue which the bees will try to replen- 

 ish by consumption of nitrogen. (I find in every 

 case, where my sugar fed colonies were trusted 

 with a few cells of bee-bread, and then subjected to 

 a low temperature, they ate every particle within 

 their Teach.) 



7. Bees will let their bee-bread alone as long as 

 the temperature is high enough so that no exercise 

 is needed. 



8. Bees may be forced to the consumption of pol- 

 len by its presence floating in the honey, constitut- 

 ing their winter stores. 



CONCLU.SION. 



If the honey is free from floating pollen, or bac- 

 teria, bees can be successfully wintered with it, if 

 put into a repository whose temperature never 

 goes below 40 or 45, if the colonies are well ar- 

 ranged for retaining their heat within their hives, 

 beebread or no bee-bread. 



